Yo!
Been a good while.
Thought I’d push this out asap as the in-stock buy has just happened.
But!
Don’t worry, there will be a group buy for this board soon after, and cheaper as well.
And that mechanical keyboard is the Vega, by ai03 and Kevinplus.
Interesting box.
Mine did come a little scuffed, but oh well.
So this is legit important.
Can confirm you need to follow the online manual to get everything right, because it
isn’t the typical build.
Well, pretty similar to the Polaris, which is the 60% in this reference series of keyboards,
which focuses on a clean sleek aesthetic, acoustics, and typing experience, all at relatively
solid pricing.
The in-stock run had it at 359USD, while the groupbuy run will be at 329USD, which is higher
than the Polaris and that was a huge plus for that board.
And check this out.
I went for the dark blue, and it looks sweet as.Very clean on first impressions, no defects.
But it’s a beautiful deep dark blue.
And as always, chuck on the feet before you do anything.
These one are quite short and flat which is nice.
Alrighty, let’s take this thing apart.
We receive some Torx tools, although it is easier if you just use a screwdriver.
And these are the case screws that secure the top aluminium piece to the bottom aluminium
piece.
Here’s the plate, pretty standard 1.5mm thick aluminium.
This one looks pretty interesting though, because the outer mounting holes don’t extend
past the plate like a normal top mount keyboard.
However, this is a gasket mount board, and those holes are just to temporarily hold the
screws.
But I guess if you wanted to screw it to the top piece, you can.
And with the top piece, we can see the case mounting holes for the bottom housing extend
inwards, which allows for no externally visible screws, so that’s why the bottom looked
so clean.
Now to the bottom piece.
We get a bunch of foam.
One to go between the PCB and plate, and another to go beneath the PCB.
Both are optional however, and aren’t necessary for the functionality of the board.
The weight is nice and simple with the Vega engraving, and this is made from stainless
steel this time round, coming in at a solid 900g.
And all the weights have the same matte black PVD finish, which I find quite aesthetic.
Okay, let’s start building.
And again, refer to the manual.
First up, gaskets.
We have a bunch of long pieces of foam.
Pretty soft and compressible.
And these go around the outside on both sides.
And some shorter pieces to fill in the rest.
The gaskets are approximately 1.5mm uncompressed, like the plate.
And then we have some smaller pieces to stick on the inside.
Remember, this is a gasket mount board, so the plate won’t be mechanically fastened
to the case.
These pieces prevent that lateral movement.
Aight, the PCB.
This is available in a solderable version, and that will allow you to change the layout
a bit to your liking.
Like split spacebar, split backspace, ISO enter, all that sort of stuff.
But I have the hotswap version, and therefore has a fixed ANSI layout.
First up are the stabs.
They’re using a thinner PCB, so they include shims for your stabilisers.
I have some sort of C3 stabs here, and I didn’t need them, as they couldn’t go in with the
shims.
It just depends on your stabs.
Now we need to put the standoffs to connect the PCB and the plate, as the switches aren’t
soldered into place, and are basically friction fitted instead.
It’s not 100% necessary to put them in, but it makes everything more stable.
However, at minimum, and this goes for the solderable version too, you need to put one
in this spot, as it’s required for handling static discharge.
The board has Kailh hotswap sockets, and again with these, there is potential to lift them,
damage them, even making them fall off, if you’re not cautious, which would therefore
require soldering.
I have some Macho’s which are a C3 JWK linear, and I lubed them with Krytox 205g0, and put
in Laser_Ninja .18mm films.
Just make sure that the pins are straight.
Sometimes films can make it a little harder.
And if switches are still difficult to put in, you can cut off the plastic prongs.
Just put em in nice and easy, and you should be sweet.
And just be careful with these two switches.
They have to be upsidedown to make room for the USB C port.
Now this is when it got confusing to me.
Remember how the plate was screwed to the top aluminium piece at the start?
Yeh, you’re supposed to PUT them BACK in as temporary retention screws.
And basically the switches were blocking these bits.
And later on, you’d take those screws out.
Fortunately!
This is a hotswap board, so all I needed to do was remove a few keyswitches.
But yeh, don’t make the same mistake, especially if you have the switches soldered in.
Next we gotta stick this conductive foam pad in this spot, and that connects to that necessary
standoff from earlier.
Then plop on the bottom piece, and look at that compression.
Yeh, I totally forgot about these foam pieces, as I don’t think I saw them in the instructions.
But these just go under the PCB.
And here we are.
The Vega custom mechanical keyboard from ai03 and Kevinplus.
As said earlier, this is part of the reference series.
So Aesthetically, it has the same design language as the Polaris.
Very clean and simplistic.
Mildly sized bezels, pretty thin, with the top and bottom being a bit thicker than the
sides.
Slightly rounded corners.
The blocker to the left of the arrow keys gives it a little bit of character, to an
otherwise very simple top.
Side profile is again super clean.
Seamless, with the top overlapping the bottom, same as the Polaris.
6.5 degree incline, which is pretty standard, and perfectly comfortable for a 5 row keyboard.
On the rear we have a centred USB type C port, which splits the alu and the stainless steel
weight.
I love that matte black PVD finish, looks sweet as.
Matte might be a bit strong of a word, more of a satin matte.
In theory, this should hold up a bit better than brass being exposed, and I think that’s
why they went with this instead.
But yeh, the bottom is clean as.
I’ve seen a few people say that this looks pretty plain.
And yeh, it’s pretty plain, but that’s one of its strengths as well.
There’s boards that look like this, and others that take a different approach, and
that’s seen first hand with ai03’s Signature series.
I think the blocker does help a bit, and the rear weight design too adds enough character.
Yeh, I think it looks gorgeous, especially with the stunning deep blue finish.
Being a 65% keyboard, we have dedicated arrow keys and a few nav keys on the right hand
side.
No function row.
Very popular size, for people that can’t handle a 60%, like myself.
The board is programmable via VIA which is awesome.
So you can configure a heap of things, and they apply instantly.
And the first thing I did was put caps lock back, because I’m a caps lock user, like
all good people are.
But how does it type?
Let’s have a quick listen.
I honestly can’t remember how the Polaris typed like.
But this definitely will suit a lot of people’s preference.
Again, I filmed and lubed these switches.
But damn this feels good.
There’s a little bit of give, but not much flex.
Perhaps the polycarbonate plate will give you more of that if you wish.
But it does have a very pleasant dampened bottom out, because there is quite a lot of
foam and gaskets packed in there.
So while it softens that bottom out, I wouldn’t say it’s particularly very thocky, or soft,
or has much depth, because the foam does tighten the feel and sound up a little bit, makes
it a little more dense.
Not hard, but a touch sharp.
I suspect that the foam layers have a decent effect on that aspect, so you could just not
use the big foam pieces to change its characteristics.
I haven’t tried, so I don’t know for sure.
But it may perhaps lower the pitch a tiny bit, and potentially even soften the bottom
out, as you give it more space.
I mean, even removing some of the standoffs between the plate and PCB may change things.
Of course we consider the keyswitches, even though they are lubed and filmed, which makes
a huge difference, JWK linears are slightly on the thinner sounding side.
Like, listen to the difference between stock and modded.
And with that density, it feels quite contained, so not a whole lot of up and down movement
too, there’s not much vibration through the case, and onto the table.
However, don’t confuse this with a hard feeling and sounding board, because while
it does have those characteristics, the bottom out isn’t harsh.
And as usual, this all translates to the sound as well.
Minimal reverb, no ping, just very crisp.
I went a little heavier with the lube on the stabs, because while it felt good, it was
just a little too sharp, so I recommend that.
I think it’s a very clear and clean typing experience.
Which may not really make sense, but that’s the vibe I get from it.
Just very balanced.
But as always personal preference comes into play, but I feel that this board covers a
lot of what people like.
And that’s the Vega.
I was a big fan of the Polaris, especially since it was 200 something bucks.
This is a little more, and that was acknowledged.
I still think at the GB price of 329, it’s a very very fair price.
Because it is quality.
It looks good, feels good, sounds good, and the quality is there.
Shipping from China definitely helps a bunch in price.
But I guess it comes down to whether you like how it looks, which is a little plain, but
sooo clean.
So the in-stock run has just been completed, sold out super quick.
I didn’t really want to interfere with that.
But the group buy run will be coming soon, so I’ll link all that stuff in the description.
I’ve been trying to plan more themed boards, like the Kpop series, and other upcoming series.
But I’m hesitant to mess with this one, I dunno, let me know.